Anybody else catch GG2? I was a huge fan of the first one, so I was pretty excited to see this one too. I thought the soundtrack was great once again, and the movie itself nearly as good as the first one. The plot I thought was a little less taut than the original... took a long time to get going, and felt like it needed a little bit more on the end, but I suppose that's just my perception. I also enjoyed the camaraderie and in-jokey humor, but it got a little self-aware and self-referential at times--but only a little. Nothing too bad, and a lot of the humor (especially Drax) was extremely effective; that's to say, hilarious. The animation on Rocket always blows me away: if somebody saw this movie twenty years ago, they would probably come to the conclusion that raccoons can actually talk and shoot stuff, it's that realistic down to the drifting of individual hairs, twitching of ears, etc.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the first film, but it's an enjoyable superhero ensemble film that didn't take it too seriously which made it unique against the others that were. The chemistry with the leading characters was good. Ronan the Accuser was a bland villain, but it was great to see Thanos. I loved the soundtrack and the visual effects that created Rocket Raccoon and the endless cosmos was great.

I watched Vol. 2 by myself on Thursday afternoon, and while the stakes felt bigger than the first film, it wasn't quite as good as the first film. It wasn't as fresh and inventive as the first film.

For the opening scene, they de-aged Kurt Russell to make him resemble his younger self, and the results were impressive. It was even more convincing than the de-age version of Robert Downey, Jr. in Captain America: Civil War. According to the visual effects team, it was mostly practical with little CGI used for touch-ups.

Continuing on Kurt Russell, his performance as Ego was great. After a series of bland Marvel villains, Ego was finally an impressive, charismatic villain that became a formidable threat to the Guardians of the Galaxy. (I'm so glad Hollywood is giving Russell a career renaissance since he's good at comedy and drama.)

Baby Groot was cute.

Michael Rooker was literally the heart of the film and gave the best performance as Yondu.

While the main drive was about Peter, all of the other characters got a chance to shine and grow. Despite his sarcastic, cynical exterior, Rocket found the heart of gold he never thought he had. Yondu's character arc with his search for redemption was played out quite well. The sibling rivalry between Nebula and Gamora is more layered with the former being victimized by Thanos at an early age and growing jealous over Gamora since she was never showed the love by her sister.

The Sovereign

This movie is covered with the central theme of family.

Cons:

Some of the humor felt forced and juvenile. For example, Drax and Peter get into a discussion over whether Ego has a [censored] or not, which felt really crude. Another one was Peter asking everyone else for tape, which went on a little too long.

While I loved and learned a few new songs (such as "Sham Bam"), the Vol. 2 soundtrack as a whole wasn't as great as the first film's soundtrack. Nevertheless, they were used to support the emotional context of the scenes. The opening scene with "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl") was great and added context and meaning to Ego's real personality and the relationship between him and Peter's mother, Meredith. "Father and Son" made for a solemn closure to Yondu's character arc.

The Sovereign felt like a plot device to lead the Guardians to Ego at the beginning, and including them during the climax felt forced and almost made things too muddled. Basically all of that offered was a repeat of the space chase earlier in the film. Nevertheless, they do serve as a foil, help set up Adam Warlock (which I'm excited about), and made for a few hearty jokes. While the race think of themselves as perfect, their execution of perfection is anything but.

On a final note, while I don't consider it a fault of the movie, I was a little disappointed that not one post or mid-credit scene was hinted or progressed the story towards Avengers: Infinity War.

I really enjoyed Guardians 2 but not quite as much as the first. Its up there but just not quite for me. Its easy to be disappointed by a follow up film as you have higher expectations from having loved the first one. So maybe there is a bit of that in it too. Its hard to say what I thought without giving any spoilers so sorry if any of this sounds too negative or vague. I didn't quite like the soundtrack as much as the first, thats just personal taste. It wasn't bad, just not quite as epic as the first. The story line was good but quite drawn out and the jokes seemed more placed than as in the first they where just natural, more in style of Deadpools 4th wall breaking but not quite at that level. For the fun family film it got really dark at times and it was good with the balance between comedy and darkness, whilst also managing to not mix the two together.

Oh just a side note. During the end credits the people behind where talking about "who is that old guy?, I don't get it"